Social+Studies

Welcome to the Social Studies section of the **Happy Apples** wiki!
===‍In this section more and more useful technology and helpful websites will be added to assist in the teaching of elementary history. Enjoy! ===

** By:Brittney Layton **

====‍The first website that I found extremely useful is []. This website hosts a variety of topics ranging from government to geography and more. The great thing about this website is that it includes all grade level lesson plans and activites. For example here is a simple geography lesson to help students learn states and capitals:==== ====‍==== //-Materials Required: Basic sugar cookie dough, outline of state, small M&Ms, choc. chips, etc Activity Time: 30 minutes Concepts Taught: US Geography////-Ahead of time: roll out cookie dough to 1/4" thickness. Using outline of state, cut out cookie(s) (you may choose to make one large cookie for each group of children or individual smaller ones). Bake according to package directions.////-Using icing to attach, have children locate state capital and mark with candy star (for decorating cakes). Using miniature choc. chips, locate & mark any mountains. Use mini M&Ms for large cities. You may get as elaborate as time allows.// //-Optional ideas: use blue icing to mark rivers/lakes; green for plains, etc.// ====‍There are so many fantastic and engaging plans on this website to assist your students in learning.====

====Another extremeley helpful website is []. This is another website that has a plethora of activities and information. It also contains information for multiple grade levels and multiple subjects. In the Elementary Social Studies section you can find President coloring pages for the younger children and free printable worksheets to go along with your lesson plans. There are games, posters. flash cards and more! Once again this is a great website to utilize to engage the students in whatever the lesson may be. Here is an example of sample posters they have of famous people in history. They also have posters of maps, laws, early civilizations and more!==== ====Click to preview!-->

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====I found a really great site called socialstudiesforkids.com. Here you can find a variety of different topics that link you to other resources. There was an interesting section on Lewis and Clark anf traveling west. Games and hands on activities are great ways to engage children in learning. There is a game where you have to make decisions to travel West! Will you make it?====

====A great resource if you are doing article research to go along with the lesson is @http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/stories/history/. You can find a variety of articles on different events in history including the Statue of Liberty to ancient artifacts. It is a great way to get kids to search for articles and analyze them. This way you can have them practice writing skills while still learning History.====

====A great and friendly resource for educators is Google! I just learned of all the great things that Google has to offer and wanted to share them here. In the subject of Social Studies Google Earth can be used to visit monuments all over the world! It's amazing and students can play with the 3D images to see all of the angles. Google Maps can also be used for a geography lesson to show places in comparison to where we live.

Also although not affiliated with Google there is a search engine for Kids using Google custom search called KidRex

This is a great search engine for Kids to use that is safe and fun! (Click the picture to visit)

===We are living in a digital world and more and more technology is being integrated into schools epspecially ipods, iphones,and ipads! Here are some History apps that are great for learning in classroom!=== ===History can sometimes be a boring topic and children learn better with hands on activities. This app helps children learn the presidents with matching games, hangman type game and also a multiple choice game. This is a fun way to pair history and learning for children!===

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===Another great hands on learning app is similar to the presidents but involves states. You match states with the picture and name. It also teaches the student state capitals. This app is also wonderful because in round one it takes the time to teach the student the information.===

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====Here is a site that has a number of lesson plans for different grade levels. There are also handouts and worksheets that you can print. You have to sign up and be a member but the examples and teacher testimonials made it sound worth it!==== ====[]====

PBS has a lot of great resources and tools for educators to use in their classrooms! You can choose topics by grade level or pick activity packs to see all the different activities you can do!
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====A great internet resource is []. When you arrive at the main page, there are current events listed along with a "This week in history" section. On the side bar, there are also different topics and teaching resources. This would be an interesting warm-up for a history lesson because it involves current events as well as historical events that occured the same week many years ago.====